From 2003 to 2013 Almost all Asian
Am. "civil rights" type orgs. supported race-preference"
college admissions in courts
March, 2012 80-20 took a SURVEY taken
by 47,108 Asian Ams. The FOR/ AGAINST ratio for a
"race neutral" admissions was 52.4 to 1.
May 29, 2012
80-20 became the FIRST AsAm national organization to take legal action AGAINST
"race-preference" college admission.
June, 2013
The Supreme Court decision on "Fisher v. Univ. of Texas" came.
Dec. 3, 2013
Calif. Senate passed SCA-5.
Mar. 17,
2014 A great victory! SCA-5 was defeated.
Mar. 21, 2014 80-20 PAC announced to DEFEAT 2 Calif. AsAm politicians.
Mar. 28, 2014 Days of Reckoning I:
Sen. Leland Yee lost his senate position.
Nov. 2, 2014 Days of Reckoning II: Paul Fong was defeated.
Timeline II -- Recent
Actions on the College Admissions Front
Nov. 17,
2014 Projects on Fair Representation filed lawsuits challenging admissions policies at Harvard and
Univ. of N. Carolina - Chapel Hill in District Courts. The cases are
expected to work their ways to the Supreme Court eventually. It
is a high quality project led by Mr. Ed glum. 80-20 has
assisted Blum to find highly qualified AsAm students, who were rejected by
Harvard, as plaintiffs.
May 15, 2015
A coalition of 64 Asian American organizations filed a complaint
against Harvard
President and Fellows of the Harvard College for discrimination against
Asian-American applicants in the College admissions process. The
complaint was submitted to Office of Civil Rights, Dept. of Education and
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice. 80-20's Washington D.C.
chapter is 1 of the 64 orgs. This complaint received a large amount of media
attention, including articles from NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, China Daily, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor,
Fox, NBCNEWS , CNN. The 64 orgs.
calls itself The Coalition of Asian American Associations.
Unlike the pro or con
amicus briefs filed by Asian American 501c-3 organizations of the past, which
played supportive roles to lawsuits started by mainstream individuals and orgs,
this complaint was
filed by an pan-Asian group - a historic first. It showed that Asian Ams'
political activism had grown further. A sign that the movement needs
further nurturing is that the complaint is mostly based on the data from
the lawsuit of the Project on Fair Representation, filed last
November. The data is so
powerful that a number
of the mainstream media articles publicize the ENTIRE complaint, a
very rare practice.
May 19,
2015 An "open letter" from 135
AAPI organizations, led by the earlier “civil rights"
type organizations like AAJC, OCA & JACL that had always supported
"race-preference" college admissions, was issued to down
the complaint filed by the "64 AsAm orgs.". The open letter
made two points:
(1) Affirmative action
in college admissions does not constitute quotas. However, it did NOT submit any data to prove that point. Had it
submitted data, it would have proved just the opposite.
(2) It implicitly
accused the "64 orgs" of using "divisive wedge politics."
Most AsAms might be
befuddled by this accusation and ask, "how does politics come
in?" Let me explain. The "open letter"
group anticipated that the Depts of Education and Justice in the Obama Administration
will NOT deal with the complaint seriously. It is because
the presidential election is near, and Democrats need the bloc vote
from the black community, 9 to 1 in favor of a Democratic presidential
candidate. The Asian Am community will, as a result of the non-action of
the Democratic administration, be upset with the Democrats, causing them
to vote against the Democrats in 2016. A distinct
possibility!
The action taken by the
"open letter" group owing to its anticipated non-action by
the Democratic administration is MOST disappointing. It revealed where its heart lied -with the Democratic
Party instead of the Asian Am. community. It should have urged the Democratic
administration NOT to trifled with the "complaint."
Instead, it blamed the "64 org. group" for filing the
complaint.
How outrageous!
These 135 orgs. had abandoned their own community. Shouldn't "Days of Reckoning" be upon them as
well, fellow AsAms?
But that is not an 80-20 PAC job.
Shouldn't you as
citizens demanding accountability?
As expected, the
shallow contents of the "open letter" didn't receive any
attention from any of the major papers in the nation, in stark contrast to the
huge media attention paid to the complaint from the 64 orgs. group.
S. B. Woo, a volunteer
for the past 16 years
President, 80-20 PAC,
Inc.
PS: I'll be a keynoter
at USDA in D.C. at 10 a.m. on May 27. It's open to the public.
80-20's Top 10 Accomplishment, published 3 years ago.
